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Integrated marketing communication (IMC), communication strategy, media strategy, budgeting and usage of metrics in measuring communication performance.

Undergraduate and postgraduate marketing.

The choice of a well-planned IMC strategy becomes crucial for the successful launch of an event. This is a case study on how a brand management consultancy house, TMH, used IMC to launch a world music festival event in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in 2009, registering a visitorship of five times their target, 89 percent satisfaction and a staggering 99 percent of the visitors planning to visit the festival also in 2010.

This case can be used to teach IMC, marketing communication strategy, media strategy and scheduling and budgeting.

A teaching note is available on request.

The unprecedented changes in the marketplace induced by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant accelerated corporate migration to virtual ecosystems have added several unique research opportunities and theoretical gaps, especially in business-to-business (B2B) small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) markets in the service sector. Particularly, customer interactions in B2B services that were once sustained by the “people mix” now demand a huge overhaul in light of the “new normal” restrictions. Hence, the purpose of this study is to explore how B2B service firms can engender firm value through virtual customer interactions during and in the post-COVID-19 era from an SME’s perspective.

This study adopts an exploratory qualitative inquiry to contribute to this discourse by proposing a conceptual framework based on prior literature and relevant theoretical frameworks, as well as qualitative interviews with SME managers, CEOs and/or owner-managers.

The qualitative findings reveal organizational preparedness, empathy, digital content and trust as key enablers of effective B2B virtual interaction that enhances cocreated value, thereby augmenting firm value. This study offers a much-needed examination of virtual interaction in B2B contexts and proposes a business customer virtual interaction model.

The exploratory nature of this study is one limitation, and future studies with a bigger representative sample size that uses survey or experimental data drawn from large enterprises might add value to the current findings. Also, while this study is conducted in dynamic markets due to the COVID-19 crisis, future research must examine the customer/firm’s experiences in other forms of crises-led market ecosystems.

B2B service firms must be strongly inclined to continuously take steps to develop and maintain virtual interaction with customers. Proactive efforts to familiarize internal and external stakeholders with virtual interaction platforms are a crucial step for effective customer engagement. The effectiveness of B2B virtual interactions can be strengthened through digital content that elicits trust and exhibits empathy, especially in crises led-markets. Also, the value created for the firm must be redeployed strategically to sustain positive customer engagement behaviors that continue to deliver value to the firm and the customer.

This paper contributes to the increasing B2B customer engagement literature by exploring the ongoing dialogue on how B2B firms can strive and succeed in the post-COVID-19 era or related crises-led market ecosystems through enhanced virtual B2B customer interaction efforts.

The concept of “internal marketing” (IM) has gained the attention of researchers over the past three decades. Though a lot of research has been carried out on this topic, it remains a concept yet to be completely understood and captured, with ambiguity in terms of its definition and scope. The purpose of this paper is to utilise the higher education (HE) context in an emerging country, United Arab Emirates (UAE), to argue that the term “IM” needs more unbundling and hence the authors propose an enriched framework with a renewed and relevant identity, which the authors term as “corporate fusion” (CF).

The authors do so with a renewed framework and philosophy that tries to capture new constructs and dimensions of IM in line with the emerging corporate milieu and has been applied to the HE sector of the UAE in this paper.

The proposed new conceptual framework identifies a CF philosophy building on the existing literature and captures the essence of IM orientation, albeit with its new constructs, dimensions and justifications. Furthermore, the authors argue that this new model is relevant to the contemporary environmental trends surrounding present day HE organisations, more so ever in emerging markets such as the UAE, given their growth needs in a competitive global marketplace.

In this paper, the authors take a close introspection at the contemporary role of IM in the HE landscape available in the UAE using a renewed framework titled “Corporate Fusion”.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the implementation of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices and its impact on corporate performance (CP). The research in particular examines the results of implementing a set of GSCM practices on different dimensions of the CP.

This study, being the first of its kind in the Middle East, developed a research model to test the relationship between four main GSCM practices namely, eco-design, green purchasing, environmental cooperation and reverse logistics, and four dimensions of CP: operational performance, environmental performance, economic performance and social performance, while controlling three main variables (firm size, firm age and environment management system certification). Statistical analyses were based on the data collected, through survey questionnaires, from 117 firms in the manufacturing industry in the UAE. Reliability and validity of the research model were tested by the commonly accepted statistical tools. To test the hypotheses relating implementation of GSCM practice and CP, multiple regression analysis was used.

The finding of the study was that GSCM practices impact the CP dimensions differently. While none of the four GSCM practices were found to have any impact on the environmental performance, green purchasing and environmental cooperation were found to have a significant impact on the operational performance. The study found that only green purchasing plays a role in improving the economic performance, while only reverse logistics practices were found to impact the social performance of the firm positively.

Research on GSCM is still in the nascent stage. Further refinement of the survey to differentiate between different manufacturing industries might be needed. Generalizability of the findings is also limited because of data collected from manufacturing firms in the UAE. This research provides important insights. The findings of this research are generally consistent with those of prior studies in other parts of the world. Firms in manufacturing industry in the UAE believe that GSCM practices help the company design and develop better products which, in turn, increase the company chances in selling its products in the international markets while, at same time, improving the average profit and market share. It was also found that the UAE firms believe that implementation of GSCM practices help improve the corporate image, enhance employees’ job satisfaction and improve employees’ health and safety.

Implementation of GSCM practices improves CP in different ways. Supply chain managers are required to decide on the CP dimension they want to improve and accordingly select the appropriate GSCM practices mix that leads to the desired level of improvement.

Although few earlier researches studied the impact of GSCM on CP, this study is different and makes a unique contribution by offering a holistic view of the impact of implementing four main GSCM practices on all dimensions of CP. The study offers some insights on the type of GSCM practices the firm needs to adopt to improve the targeted performance dimension.

Emerging technologies are becoming vital in the very process of innovation. Companies need to be updated to the latest technologies to offer their premium services to customers as well as meet their expectations. In the medical sector, it is a challenge to sustain superiority in service due to a high level of competition and the challenges arising from different forces. Liberty Dental Clinic (LDC), a premium clinic in dental services and solutions, based in the UAE, was able to maintain a premium presence in Dentistry due to a series of developmental thoughts and efforts. It was able to invest and utilize new innovative technologies which many organizations lacked such as implementing the most contemporary Artificial Intelligence “4 Robots” in the Clinics. Creating a pathway for a satisfactory customer journey was embedded at all levels of the hierarchy in the Clinic and customer touchpoints. Using a case study methodology, the drivers behind the success and uniqueness of LDC have been discussed including Leadership, Quality Management, Risk Management, Internal & External Marketing Strategy, Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, Technology and Innovation.

Retailers, irrespective of their scale of operation, face the tough challenge of standing out from their competition; a major driver to ensure success and progress in the retail industry is differentiation. This paper is a case study based description of how a retail house in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, used retail physicality and identity change as sources of innovation and differentiation and revived its retail operation.

A literature review on retailing, retail physicality and identity change is presented to illustrate the challenges faced by retailers and the current trends in retailing. Primary research was conducted by way of in‐depth interviews with Better Life, a retail house of the Al‐Gurg group of companies, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to understand the retail strategies employed by Better Life.

Retailers are constantly looking for sources of innovation and differentiation to differentiate themselves from others. This paper shows the role played by retail physicality and identity change as sources of innovation and differentiation and how a retailer has applied them to repositioning its retail identity in the market and revived its operations.

Traditional retail strategies may not provide the necessary competitive advantage needed for survival and progress in competitive markets. Understanding customers, calculated targeting, and focussed positioning using various dimensions are important aspects to be planned by retailers. Among the relevant positioning strategies available, retail physicality and identity change are two prime strategies and drivers, and are hence a source of retail innovation in competitive markets.

The paper provides retailers with a unique perspective to analyse sources of retail innovation taking retail physicality and identity change as innovation strategies. If the strategies are implemented properly they can serve as competitive advantages for retail sustenance and success.

This is the case of an iconic brand from the Middle East, Abdul Samad Al-Qureshi Company (ASQ), which registered an admirable growth to become a global brand. ASQ was established in 1932 in Makkah, Al-Haram al-Sharif, the Holy Mosque. The company’s mission is to provide high-quality perfume products in the Arabian Peninsula. The company has different departments which work together to ensure that it achieves its objectives and has an extensive presence in the UAE. The company has seen a substantial increase in the number of staff members while sales have increased significantly. The customers’ satisfaction rate grew immensely resulting in the continuous number of awards that the company for its performance. The major drivers of success at ASQ are strong brand image, customer satisfaction, quality product, effective employee training programs, unique market offerings, and market research.

The establishment of the Dubai Association Centre (DAC) back in 2014 was an important development in the association world in Dubai and the Middle East. The organization was established at a critical time when the area was switching to a knowledge-based economy. Throughout the years, DAC has experienced lots of success within its operations. It has increased membership, improved the ease of doing business for global associations and opened up Dubai and the Middle East to the rest of the world. Its success can be attributed to its efficient management, inter-unit integration with other organizations, intellectual capital development, service orientation, and social marketing efficiency. These success drivers have enabled it to sustain its growth as well as that of associations within it.

The excessive accumulation of pollutants in the world’s oceans is urging all stakeholders to take swift action. Ecocoast is a Dubai-based organization that makes an impact by carving a niche for itself to overcome this predicament. The organization’s range of sustainable solutions offered at each stage of the coastal and marine development lifecycle focuses on protecting the marine environment. Founded in 2009, Ecocoast has since proven its robust positioning as an industry leader, winning over 15 industry awards. The drivers that influenced Ecocoast’s success were analyzed based on interviews with the founders and employees, as well as secondary data resources. Customer centricity, transformational leadership, research orientation, adaptive culture, corporate transparency, cross-functional specialization, and sustainable corporate thinking were found to be what shaped its success. The case proposes a strategic question for future research: Was it the desire for customer centricity that led to a transformational leadership style, or was it the other way around?